Laser

LASER PHOTONICS Inc. of Orlando said Thursday it earned $201,000 for the second quarter ended June 30, almost three times its profit of $54,000 in the year-earlier period. Sales reached $2.89 million, up slightly from $2.85 million in second quarter 1991. Laser employs about 100 in the design, manufacture and marketing of laser systems for medical and scientific markets.RESTAURANTSWENDY'S INTERNATIONAL said Thursday its quarterly earnings increased 21 percent on stronger sales. Net income was $22.4 million, compared with $18.6 million in the same period a year earlier.

From the drawing board to the laboratory, laser physicist Madhu Acharekar saw the light, harnessed it and used it in myriad ways. He developed tiny lasers that could track enemy missiles; vaporize plaque in a heart artery; and measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. For decades, Acharekar worked as one of the top scientists for Orlando high-tech entrepreneur Bill Schwartz, known as the father of Central Florida's laser industry. Acharekar landed a number of patents, government grants and professional honors in the 1980s and '90s, associates said.

A man accused of aiming a laser pointer at a helicopter was acquitted by an Orlando federal judge, court records show. Dimitry Maksimchuk was indicted last year and charged with pointing a laser at a Seminole County Sheriff's Office aircraft July 17. Maksimchuk was acquitted early this year.

For the second time this week, a law enforcement helicopter in Central Florida was flashed at night with the blinding light of a laser. The latest incident happened early Wednesday in east Orlando when a sheriff's pilot reported someone in a car on Colonial Drive had been aiming a green laser beam at the helicopter's windshield, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The pilot broadcast the location of the car, which had stopped about 3 a.m. for a red light near Bridgeway Boulevard.

GROVELAND — The nonprofit group Lake and Sumter Emergency Recovery (LASER) is asking for donations to help residents whose homes were damaged during last week's thunderstorms that swept across Lake. Officials said about 30 homes in Groveland along a 1 1/2-mile swath had the most damage, including roofs being torn off and trees toppling. No one was seriously injured or died in the storm. LASER is teaming with the United Way of Lake & Sumter Counties to raise money, which will go toward helping to repair or rebuild damaged homes.

FUTURE SPACECRAFT will be powered by lasers and air rather than conventional fuels, says Leik Myrabo, a propulsion expert at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. Science Digest passes on Myrabo's prediction that orbiting solar-powered satellites will beam high-energy laser power into an air-breathing engine on the launch pad. The air expands and off we go. Just before the ship reaches orbit, the laser turns its attention to a hydrogen tank for the final thrust. The hydrogen would be heated and expelled, rather than ignited, so that stage, too, would be safe.

Overview: The Laser is billed as the first Plymouth of the '90s, a sporty 2-plus-2 that certainly is worth looking at. . . . The sleek new coupe will be available this month only in California, and it will be phased in across the country in later months. . . . This is a wild machine, with hooded headlights, a bulged hood to cover the turbocharger, and a basic upside-down banana shape that looks like something off the cover of Aerodynamic News.Technical notes: The Laser is offered in two models, base and RS, with three different four-cylinder engines, a 1.8-liter plain-vanilla, a 2-liter carbureted version, and a turbo screamer that puts out 190 horsepower.

FARO Technologies Inc. said Tuesday it has snagged a five-year deal to produce laser-based measurement systems for the factories of European aircraft maker Airbus. Terms call for Lake Mary-based FARO to make laser trackers and other equipment for the new Airbus A350 project assembly line, the company said. Financial terms were not disclosed. It is the latest in a series of Airbus deals for the local company. As a result of the new deal, FARO will have its laser-measurement equipment in all of Airbus' European factories.

Two surgical laser companies with Central Florida ties got opposite results Friday after appearing before a Food and Drug Administration panel. Orlando-based Autonomous Technologies Corp. received the panel's OK for its new laser for the treatment of nearsightedness. It was a big victory for Autonomous' main laser machine, which now can be sold in the United States. LaserSight Corp. lost its bid, however, to get clearance for a laser to be used in a popular sight-correction procedure called LASIK.

LEESBURG -- The City Commission agreed Monday to spend $22,200 on 48 Crimson Trace Laser Sight systems for the police department's Glock handguns. Currently, the department's tactical team and firearm instructors are using 14 Glocks with the laser sights. The purchase, made through the sale of confiscated cars and other items, will allow all officers access to the technology that illuminates a red laser beam on the target. Officials said that laser-sighting systems will prevent shootings and are the final option in "less than lethal alternatives.

A 17-year-old Kissimmee boy accused of shining a laser at a Osceola County Sheriff's Office helicopter pilot told deputies he didn't know it was illegal to point a laser at an aircraft. The boy was charged with misuse of laser lighting devices and booked into the Osceola County Jail. He was later released to his mother's custody because of his age. The Sentinel is not naming the juvenile. The incident happened at 10 p.m. Monday. The Aviation Unit's helicopter was assisting deputies investigating a disturbance in the area of Lucille Street and East Carroll Street in Kissimmee when the pilot was temporarily blinded by a laser light.

Diane Bostick, who fought back breast cancer in 2009 but later found the cancer had spread to her brain, received a literal ray of hope, becoming the first person in Central Florida to undergo a new laser thermal treatment for brain tumors. Five days later, the Orlando woman was mowing her lawn. "I was the perfect candidate," said the wife and mother of two grown children, who had worried her doctor would say the dreaded, "There's nothing more we can do. " Bostick, 51, was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago. She fought it with chemotherapy, radiation and a lumpectomy.

The laser pointer that provides endless entertainment to your cat may seem harmless, but federal authorities say the device is increasingly directed at aircraft - putting pilots and passengers in jeopardy. Known as "lasing," a pinhole-sized laser aimed at airplane and helicopter cockpits can temporarily blind pilots or cause permanent damage to their eyes. That tiny beam can expand to several feet wide in the sky, and as the light hits the cockpit window, it brightly flashes - producing an effect similar to oncoming high beams on a dark road.

For 14 years James Allen, a retired medical-office manager, went to eye doctor David Ming Pon in Leesburg for monthly treatments that he believed would save his eyesight. Allen suffered from macular degeneration, Pon told him, a progressive disease that the ophthalmologist could manage with laser treatments. In October, however, Allen sat in Pon's waiting room for four hours, something that made the 91-year-old Minneola man angry. So he got a new eye doctor, who told Allen he did not have macular degeneration.

An Orlando eye doctor is behind bars, charged with lying to patients, telling them they were about to go blind, then defrauding Medicare out of $7 million for unnecessary and phony surgery and treatment. David Ming Pon was indicted April 24 on 20 counts of Medicare fraud by a federal grand jury in Jacksonville. Pon falsely diagnosed patients with macular degeneration, a progressive eye disease that can lead to blindness, and other eye disorders. He then performed laser surgery needlessly and provided unnecessary follow-up care, according to the indictment.

Launch Complex 14, where NASA rocketed John Glenn and America into space in the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule 52 years ago, is now a shambles of rust and crumbling concrete. "These launch complexes were not built to last," said Thomas Penders on Friday. After decades of minimal maintenance on these sites, the Air Force has assigned Penders to preserve what can be saved of the old, abandoned rocket facilities that stand or lay among the dunes and scrub brush of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

A 17-year-old Kissimmee boy accused of shining a laser at a Osceola County Sheriff's Office helicopter pilot told deputies he didn't know it was illegal to point a laser at an aircraft. The boy was charged with misuse of laser lighting devices and booked into the Osceola County Jail. He was later released to his mother's custody because of his age. The Sentinel is not naming the juvenile. The incident happened at 10 p.m. Monday. The Aviation Unit's helicopter was assisting deputies investigating a disturbance in the area of Lucille Street and East Carroll Street in Kissimmee when the pilot was temporarily blinded by a laser light.

Laser maker Autonomous Technologies Corp. of Orlando said Wednesday the Food and Drug Administration notified the company that one final step is needed before its eye-surgery laser is approved for the commercial market. All requirements have been met for final approval except FDA quality inspection of Autonomous' manufacturing facilities, methods and controls, the company said. Autonomous officials expect to clear that hurdle this fall. Autonomous, a publicly held company that trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market, designs and produces next-generation excimer laser-vision correction systems.

A research team led by laser scientists at the University of Central Florida has landed a $7 million "quantum leap" research grant to develop exotic ultra-fast laser technology for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The new research award is UCF's largest grant so far this year and the largest for the College of Sciences since 2005, the university said Wednesday. Zenghu Chang, a top laser scientist in UCF's College of Optics and Photonics, heads the team that includes researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and University of Ottawa, according to UCF. The grant will finance development of a new quantum-mechanics laser system capable of generating high-intensity laser beams that pulse at twice the speed of a nanosecond, which is one-millionth of a second.

How many times you have heard a public official promise to be "laser-focused on creating jobs?" The next time you hear that, ask him or her to "focus like a laser on lasers," and other advances in the field of photonics that support American jobs. Photonics is the science and application of light. Whether you're using the computer, watching television, driving a car or texting on your smartphone, photonics makes modern-day conveniences possible. Photonics also forms the backbone of the Internet, guides energy exploration, and keeps our servicemen and women safe on the battlefield.